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xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas (xkcd.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd

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An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yes, for people who can't charge at home. I'd love to swap to electric, but 1 hour trip to go charge the car at the nearest charging station is not realistic - especially since I'd need to do it twice as often as 10min trip to refuel.

Also there's the EV prices, starting at 2-3 times more than my current whip lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

My point is that we should be focused on the outcomes we want. It isn't really important that fossil fuels are a lot more energy dense if the electric cars can travel twice as far. They can't, but I'd be willing to bet we will get to that point with fossil fuels still being more energy dense.

But also as I mentioned in the comment you relied to, Nio have a vast network of battery swap stations where you can get a full charge in a couple of minutes, the same as filling up at a gas station.

The price of EVs are a problem, and not the only problem, but my point was that the specific things mentioned don't stop us having better EVs than ICEs, because we will get the same outcome in a different way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I absolutely agree that we should work on improving EVs, charging network and whatever technologies makes it better and more suitable for more people. But every person in need of a car has unique hard requirements for the car that can't be ignored as "inconvenience" - and many of those people have to drive with fossil fuels still.

Also, battery swap stations being available in X location doesn't matter to people living in Y location, nor should people in Y location buy EV in hopes that it will be better in Z years

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I agree completely. I am not trying to argue that everyone can or should go out and buy an EV.

I was specifically addressing the points that seemed to be claiming EVs are not the right direction for cars or engines to be advancing towarda, by pointing out that the barriers aren't blocking all paths.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I honestly believe the person starting the thread was on the same wavelength, just pointing out the reason so many still choose ice

[–] someacnt_ 1 points 6 months ago

This is exacerbated by that battery technology is at its limit, and the battery companies are unwilling to drop the battery price.